It only struck me recently how nursery rhymes can assist our understanding of some current approaches to archaeological research on Britarch. For example, take 'Little Jack Horner':
Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie.
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said, "What a good boy am I!"
We might subject this biblical-style exegesis as follows:
Little Jack Horner
- someone completely unknown to the wider archaeological world, having seemingly no previous contact with other archaeologists – but instead an apparent total ignorance of the basic techniques of archaeology…
Sat in the corner,
- isolated from the archaeological community, with no membership of or affiliation with any archaeological organisation or association, amateur, professional or academic…
Eating a Christmas pie:
- but having taken interest in and intellectual possession of a topical archaeological issue…
He put in his thumb,
- rather than adopting the appropriate and recognised scientific methodology (in the case of a pie it's knife and fork), he boldly probed into the subject using a messy technique that he found ready to hand…
And pulled out a plum,
- and found what he believed to be ‘the answer’…
And said, "What a good boy am I!"
- he thereupon patted himself on the back and loudly demanded the archaeological community’s approval of his supposed discovery, expressing unbounded self-satisfaction and refusing to accept the validity of others’ well-founded objections.
(No, Jackie boy, it’s not a plum; it’s just your thumb covered in fruit juice.)
John C